This invention relates to an image recording apparatus which forms an image on an image receiving medium by transferring an image recorded on a heat-developable photosensitive medium in the presence of an image forming solvent.
A known type of image recording apparatus for forming color images by using a heat-developable photosensitive medium, such as that disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 75247/1984, involves a transfer and development process in which a heat-developable medium which has been exposed to an image is transported to a thermal development section, a sheet of image receiving paper is brought into close contact with the photosensitive medium that has been heat-developed, and the image is then transferred to the image receiving paper.
To improve the transfer efficiency, a transfer assistant (image forming solvent) such as water is previously applied to the image receiving paper before this paper is transported to the transfer section.
In the apparatus disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Laid-Open No. 75247/1984, water is applied to the paper for this purpose by being lifted by a roller from a liquid bath.
If water is applied by using an application roller, a quantity of water attached to the surface of the roller tends to move inward to an intermediate portion of the roller by the effect of surface tension, and there is therefore no substantial quantity of water attached to the roller in the vicinity of its two ends. If the roller is used to apply water under this condition, no water is applied to the widthwise ends of the image receiving paper which faces the roller. It is therefore difficult to apply water uniformly.
The present invention has been achieved in the light of the above-described facts, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image recording apparatus capable of uniformly applying an image forming assistant such as water to a heat-developable photosensitive medium or an image receiving medium by enabling uniform attachment of an image forming assistant such as water to the outer periphery of an application roller.